The Arizona rule stack
Eight layers of authority, resolved in order for an Arizona matter. Ranking orders retrieval — it does not decide a conflict; where a lower layer contradicts a higher one, both texts are surfaced for a reasoned disposition. The rule layer itself is reconstructed from the Supreme Court's public orders with a committed, gap-checked ledger — the vendor-hosted consolidation is never scraped.
- 1
Federal constitutional / statutory (when applicable)
Supremacy where a federal question or preemption is genuinely in play; the D. Ariz. local rules (LRCiv) + Ninth Circuit rules govern the loaded federal rim.
- 2
Arizona Constitution
Art. 6 vests the judicial power and hands the Supreme Court the rulemaking pen — § 5(5): “Power to make rules relative to all procedural matters in any court.” Art. 2, § 31 and art. 18, § 6 constitutionally BAN damage caps and abrogation of the right of action — the anti-cap architecture most states lack.
- 3
Supreme Court rules of PROCEDURE — the Arizona wrinkle
The inverse of North Carolina: the civil rules are court-made, not statutes. On procedural matters a rule prevails over a conflicting statute, and where the substance/procedure line falls is itself case law (Seisinger v. Siebel — a pointer, verified before citing). A.R.S. § 12-109 states the same boundary from the statute side: the court “shall regulate pleading, practice and procedure” but rules “shall not” abridge, enlarge or modify substantive rights.
- 4
Session laws + the Revised Statutes on SUBSTANCE
The A.R.S. from the Legislature's own compilation (its not-official label rides every unit). Session laws move it in waves — the 2026 session's general effective date (September 12, 2026) is watched by a committed overlay that reddens the bench until reconciled.
- 5
The judiciary's administrative codes
The Arizona Code of Judicial Administration carries court-system regulation — § 7-208 is the certified legal-document-preparer program, cited by loaded Rule 31.3. The ACJA volumes and the executive-agency Administrative Code (AAC — the MVD point tables live there) are honestly NOT loaded.
- 6
County local rules — approval-gated
Local rules exist only through the Supreme Court's approval machinery (Rule 28.1, loaded: “approval of new or amended local rules”) — the committed 15-county registry tracks them, including the Pima and Pinal replacement books. Compulsory-arbitration dollar limits are a per-county local-rule fact the platform never asserts globally.
- 7
Judge + division procedures
Division-specific practices and standing orders, confidence + last-verified — a real constraint, never flattened into law.
- 8
Case orders + party stipulations
The tier assignment and any Rule 26.2(g) modification, the Rule 16 scheduling order, and the parties' agreements where the rules permit them.